Gifting Christmas
by Ellana-san
Summary: There's a lot of things he finds ridiculous, of course. Like her insistence they should celebrate Christmas even though she must be the only one in the city thinking about it. / Hayffismas 2017 Bonus


_Hayffismas is over but what a blast it was! I want to thank you all for participating and making such awesome arts and fics! I'm so glad we managed to come together like this, I hope we can do it again soon. Perhaps in the summer? I don't mind organizing as long as people are willing to play! Anyway… It really warmed my heart to see everyone not only producing but also giving feedback and encouraging others… It was truly an awesome hayffie week! Thank you all for participating!_

 _And if you still have stuff that would work for the week that you didn't have time to post or finish yet please feel free to do it! The week may be over but I think I speak for everyone when I say there's never enough hayffie stuff._

 _As for me I leave you with a bonus hayffismas fic, just a little fluffy thing, an early Christmas present to my fandom if you would. Whether you celebrate or not, I still wish you a merry Christmas/holiday/Week-end, I love you and thank you all!_

* * *

 _ **Gifting Christmas**_

Effie surveys her work with a small pout, nowhere near satisfied. The lone pine tree branch on the dresser actually looks rather pathetic, like something someone ought to clean up instead of exposing like this; the golden stars she painfully cut herself from left over glittery papers she found in her bedroom look misshaped where she taped them to her newly repaired windows; the cheerful carols are slightly distorted by her banged up stereo; and there's a glaring hole where the Christmas tree ought to be.

Added to the fact half of her furniture is broken and her apartment still looks… _Well_. It looks like it has recently been caught into a war and ransacked several times by Peacekeepers and looters alike. It's been a long time since she reconciled herself with Haymitch's decision to have her brought to Thirteen – around the time she saw what happened to the captured victors – but every time she lets herself think about her beautiful apartment, she feels a rush of gratefulness. She can't know what the Capitol would have done with her – although she has a good idea – but regardless of that, spending the war alone in the city would have been terrifying on more than one account.

The surrender has been official for weeks, Paylor has taken over as _elected_ President, and while the conditions in the city for Capitol citizens aren't as bad as they would have been had Coin survived… Panem is still railing back from a revolution. Nothing is as it was and it is impossible to forget, mainly because their whole days are spent preparing Katniss' defense during the upcoming trial and worrying about how the girl is doing in rehab.

Effie crosses the living-room with a sigh and leans against the window, somehow reassured to feel the thickness of the glass against her shoulder. It was the most expensive option but Haymitch insisted, arguing that electricity still isn't reliable and that without a regulated weather, winter would be cold.

And winter is cold.

She had no idea winter could be _this_ cold.

The snowflakes delighted her when they first started falling. Never before has there been any _real_ snow in the city. It used to be controlled, poured on command, synthetic and fake like everything else…

Soon though, it started piling in the streets making traffic impossible given that there are still craters and collapsed buildings… A lot of people are trapped in their apartment and Effie almost ruined herself stocking on cans of food that have already been overpriced since the war. Haymitch is unfazed by it all. To him it's not a real blizzard and they're all being ridiculous.

There's a lot of things he finds ridiculous, of course.

Like her insistence they should celebrate Christmas even though she must be the only one in the city thinking about it.

She just _loves_ Christmas. The illuminations, the cheer, the gifts, the decorations, the music… It's a whole package to her. She cannot remember one single holiday when she didn't tour the town to admire the city in her Christmas outfit. She loves wrapping her apartment in tinsels, hanging red, green and gold baubles on the biggest tree she can make fit in her living-room, putting on garlands and buying a sea of gifts… She loves it.

District people barely celebrate usually – which she can understand given that there's little interest in the holiday without its fanfare – and thus the Capitol isn't dressed for Christmas this year, which she finds sad and depressing.

At least there is snow.

She tried to find a tree and some baubles to replace those that have been destroyed during her apartment's ransacking but food is scarce, a lot of people are living in shelters and every time she asks about Christmas everyone looks at her like she is crazy.

Maybe she is.

Still, she _won't_ be discouraged.

Singing cheerfully along to the next song that came up, she tries to move the homemade stars around so it will look less like a scissor happy five years old made them. She hears the jingle of keys turning in the lock but she doesn't stop, used by now to Haymitch letting himself in. They haven't really discussed it or made it official but for the time being he lives with her and the experiment is, so far, not too disastrous.

"You know… One of the things I like about you is that you never quit." he mocks as he comes into the room.

She doesn't turn around, knowing he finds her Christmas obsession equally as ridiculous as everyone else does. Still, when he wraps his arms around her waist, she leans against him a little, her singing morphing into a distracted humming due to the three kisses he plants on the side of her neck. His beard scratches her skin in a familiar comforting way and she finds herself nuzzling his neck.

"You are late." she observes. "Is everything alright? There was no new development, was there? Katniss is…"

"She's hanging on." he shrugs. He's always in an odd mood after going to the Training Center to check on the girl. Her withdrawal from morphling is a slow and painful one that is only complicated by how suicidal her sister's death made her. They're not allowed contact, which they both rose hell about, because _surely_ the girl would have been better off surrounded by people who love her… "No real change."

"Oh." she comments and she feels her Christmas spirit fading.

Probably sensing her changing mood, Haymitch lets go of her after pressing one last kiss on her neck. "Got you something on the way back."

She does turn around this time, glancing at the couple of shop bags he has tossed on the couch. She blinks because she can count on one hand the number of times he gave her a gift – actually, she can count it on three fingers – and then she _beams_ because she _does_ love gifts.

"What is it?" she asks, making a beeline for the couch, clapping her hands in her enthusiasm.

Haymitch snorts and shakes his head, his lips stretched into a smirk.

"You're a child." he accuses.

"Guilty as charged." she accepts easily, grabbing one of the bags.

She pulls out golden tinsels out of it. There are bauble underneath. She checks the next bag and finds it full of Christmas decoration. The third one contains cacao powder, cinnamon and a bottle of fresh milk – the third one isn't a problem but cacao has been very hard to find lately. And inside the fourth… Inside the fourth there is the smallest artificial Christmas tree she has ever seen. The baubles will be too big and it will look absolutely stupid but…

"Seemed so important to you…" he mumbles awkwardly.

She's on him before he can even finish his sentence. Arms locked around his neck, hopping to wrap her legs around his waist, her lips crashing on his…

"You brought me Christmas!" she exclaims between two kisses. "I cannot believe it! You brought me Christmas!"

He answers to her kisses willingly enough, propping her against the wall so he can deepen them, his hands roaming under her thighs…

"Don't read too much into it." he warns. "I'm just trying to get into your pants."

"Of course, darling." she humors him, still beaming. He must have moved heaven and earth to get all that. She's been trying for weeks. "And you will be _thoroughly_ rewarded. After we decorate."

He groans but doesn't protest, more amused than he wants to let on by her antics.


End file.
